Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat receive fines from the NBA
While there was definitely reason to celebrate having eliminated the Hawks, perhaps some of the Heat’s players took things too far. The league certainly felt that way.
Though the Heat advanced to the next round, the win against the Hawks was marred somewhat by the behavior of one of their stars and the subsequent fines that followed.
Jimmy Butler and the Heat receive fines from the NBA
Though he wasn’t available due to an inflamed knee, Jimmy Butler was most definitely present and accounted for during Game 5 of the Miami Heat’s first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks. Fans were treated to a ‘sight’ when Butler rose from the bench to celebrate a three pointer scored by his teammate Max Strus. How did Butler do so? With what can diplomatically be called a pelvic thrust. The shot in question not only lifted Strus to 10 points in the second quarter, but it was actually part of and the punctuation point on a 17-0 Miami run.
While Butler’s gesture was taken in humorous fashion by Heat assistant coach Caron Butler and reserve center Omer Yurtseven at the time, it was not interpreted the same way by the league. The evidence of course being that according to NBA announcement on Thursday Butler was hit with a $15,000 fine and so to were the Heat. “Making an obscene gesture” were the words used by the league, while the franchise received its sanction for apparently posting a GIF of said gesture on social media. The tweet in question has of course since been deleted.
Heat’s Markief Morris also fined by NBA
Believe it or not, the sanctions didn’t stop there. Indeed, it would seem Miami’s bench had a tough time maintaining good behavior on the night, as was seen during the third quarter when Miami’s Markieff Morris grabbed and held Atlanta’s De’Andre Hunter from the sideline. The sly move actually destabilized Hunter who then received a pass from a teammate and was subsequently called for being out of bounds, which he was due to being held. Morris was called for a technical fould and course the league promptly fined him $25,000 for his troubles on the following day.
Fines aside the Miami Heat roll on
With the Hawks now done and dusted the Heat are on their way to the second round courtesy of their 97-94 Game 5 win. Incidentally, Miami’s coach Erik Spoelstra actually praised Butler and Kyle Lowry - out with a hamstring injury - for the team spirit that they promoted even though they were both sidelined. “They just infused just great life into our guys,” Spoelstra said. “And particularly when it got a little bit uneven, guys were just coming back to the bench and they see Jimmy and Kyle right there in the mix, it’s hard not to gain confidence from that.”